So, I finished the last of Stanford projects today, and, barring some unexpected failure, I should be receiving my M.A. degree in the mail in a few weeks, though I won't be here to receive it.
In two weeks, I will be back in Ecuador for an undetermined amount of time. So currently I am packing up my life here in California for the loooooong drive back to Ohio, leaving all my worldly possessions at my family's house until I move back to this country, and who knows when that will be (December? maybe?). While in Ecuador, I hope to do what I can/what is needed up in Salasaka and Katitawa School. And maybe my Kichwa comprehension will improve slightly (I am so much more literate than I am conversational due to the overkill of book-studying!).
The blog will probably be re-commenced, though I can't promise much given my laziness about going to the Internet in Ecuador. Love from California/Ohio/Wisconsin/Ecuador...
Friday, June 06, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Volcano Tungurahua is erupting...
This is the volcano NOT erupting, but you can see the proximity to Baños.
Enough said.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Back in the States
I'm back. In the United States. But I am way tired and I am starting grad school tomorrow, and I am starting a job maybe, and I am moving.... So, yeah...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Arequipa and the Nazca Lines
Well, we made it across another border, this time no one thought we were drug traffickers or illegal immigrants. We went to the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa that is surrounded by beautiful peaks of the Andes. The weather is warmer as we are entering spring, and it is good to see the sun after the freezing cold of Bolivia and the Chilean coast.
After Arequipa, we made it to Nazca and we... flew! in a tiny little plane, over the Nazca Lines. They are shapes made in the desert by ancient people. Some people claim they were made by aliens, but that is a pretty ridiculous theory. The huge shapes form animals and humans when viewed from the air... so there are a billion tourist angencies selling 30 minute flights in tiny bouncy planes to see the lines in the desert. You have to wait in the airport because they organize the flights according to weight, so two little people like us were balanced out by two big heavy people.
Now we are on to our last adventure, climbing Cerro Blanco, supposedly the highest sand dune in the world, where we will camp, and then SANDBOARD miles down to the bottom. We are leaving in two hours.
Then it´s on to boring dreary Lima, and the long ride to Ecuador, which we should reach by the weekend. The grand adventures coming to an end...
After Arequipa, we made it to Nazca and we... flew! in a tiny little plane, over the Nazca Lines. They are shapes made in the desert by ancient people. Some people claim they were made by aliens, but that is a pretty ridiculous theory. The huge shapes form animals and humans when viewed from the air... so there are a billion tourist angencies selling 30 minute flights in tiny bouncy planes to see the lines in the desert. You have to wait in the airport because they organize the flights according to weight, so two little people like us were balanced out by two big heavy people.
Now we are on to our last adventure, climbing Cerro Blanco, supposedly the highest sand dune in the world, where we will camp, and then SANDBOARD miles down to the bottom. We are leaving in two hours.
Then it´s on to boring dreary Lima, and the long ride to Ecuador, which we should reach by the weekend. The grand adventures coming to an end...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Salar de Uyuni and on to Chile...
Well, after the adventures of Lake Titikaka, we headed down to La Paz, the Bolivian capital. It´s an ugly place with commercial districts filled with the usual... food, cheap plastic stuff, and dessicated llama fetuses for your own homemade witchcraft.
We wasted no time and headed south on rough roads and no roads to the remote town of Uyuni where we arranged to go by Jeep through the largest salt flat in the world, the Salar de Uyuni. We had to buy hats, gloves, and jackets, because the measly clothes we had brought with us, back when the plan was Venezuela, felt like paper against the biting cold.
That region of Bolivia looks a lot like Death Valley or Nevada, except for the fact that it is FREEZING COLD! The Salar is a mystical land where all you see is white, a flat plane of white white white... like being on another planet. We even slept in a refuge made of salt with furniture made of salt. The first night we shivered in the cold, the two of us on a tiny bed huddled together trying to keep warm.
The next day we visited a chain of tiny high altitude lakes, the water frozen, and the surfaces crowded with... FLAMINGOS! Yes, flamingos! I had no idea flamingos lived at that altitude. We went to a very basic shelter at 4500 meters (meters, not feet!)... and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero ... but in Celsius!!! not Fahreinheit... and I got sick and had to run to the bathroom outside four times! Talk about roughing it!
We got up early in the morning to see the sunrise above geysers that spouted boiling water hundreds of feet into the air. Crazy landscape! And we were freezing to death, despite the extra clothes we bought in Uyuni. So the hot springs close to the geysers were very welcome, soaking our cold bones in the hot water right next to ice and snow!
After passing by a frozen volcano, we reached the remote border with Chile, where we crossed, without problems!! We climbed into a bus, ready for a long bumpy ride through the high Atacama desert to the oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama... but five minutes later, to our great surprise, we reached a great paved highway that took us smoothly to the town.
We are now in one of the most developed countries of Latin America. The roads, the infrastructure, and even the businesses remind me of the States... unfortunately, so do the prices! So we are resting up in a cold foggy coastal city called Iquique for two nights before rushing on back to Peru tomorrow!
We wasted no time and headed south on rough roads and no roads to the remote town of Uyuni where we arranged to go by Jeep through the largest salt flat in the world, the Salar de Uyuni. We had to buy hats, gloves, and jackets, because the measly clothes we had brought with us, back when the plan was Venezuela, felt like paper against the biting cold.
That region of Bolivia looks a lot like Death Valley or Nevada, except for the fact that it is FREEZING COLD! The Salar is a mystical land where all you see is white, a flat plane of white white white... like being on another planet. We even slept in a refuge made of salt with furniture made of salt. The first night we shivered in the cold, the two of us on a tiny bed huddled together trying to keep warm.
The next day we visited a chain of tiny high altitude lakes, the water frozen, and the surfaces crowded with... FLAMINGOS! Yes, flamingos! I had no idea flamingos lived at that altitude. We went to a very basic shelter at 4500 meters (meters, not feet!)... and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees below zero ... but in Celsius!!! not Fahreinheit... and I got sick and had to run to the bathroom outside four times! Talk about roughing it!
We got up early in the morning to see the sunrise above geysers that spouted boiling water hundreds of feet into the air. Crazy landscape! And we were freezing to death, despite the extra clothes we bought in Uyuni. So the hot springs close to the geysers were very welcome, soaking our cold bones in the hot water right next to ice and snow!
After passing by a frozen volcano, we reached the remote border with Chile, where we crossed, without problems!! We climbed into a bus, ready for a long bumpy ride through the high Atacama desert to the oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama... but five minutes later, to our great surprise, we reached a great paved highway that took us smoothly to the town.
We are now in one of the most developed countries of Latin America. The roads, the infrastructure, and even the businesses remind me of the States... unfortunately, so do the prices! So we are resting up in a cold foggy coastal city called Iquique for two nights before rushing on back to Peru tomorrow!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka... and we are in Bolivia
A dark night in Cuzco and we pass towering bamboo structures with effigies hanging from them... ÷The castles... the castles that they light on fire÷ Santiago proclaims excitedly. ÷When are you burning the castles÷ he asks the señora who is putting the last touches on a shaky tower. At nine, we return. The castles are pyrotechnic displays that are apparently pretty popular throughout the Andes, and I am pretty sure they would be completely illegal in the States.
The first activity of the evening, fireworks, set off.. from the ground.. from a barrel.. all of us running for cover in case it explodes into the crowd, killing people, as happens now and then. Next, the ÷Vaca Loca÷ or Crazy Cow. ÷Aggggh, the crazy cow, run for it, Elizabeth÷ Santiago screams, dragging me behind him as I look around, bewildered. Apparently, the Crazy Cow is a papier mache cow filled with fireworks. Some idiot puts the cow on his head and runs around making the people scatter, running for their lives as the cow explodes flaming fireworks and rockets into the crowd. Santiago tells me that children have lost fingers in fire castle fiestas before as they try to escape the Crazy Cow... Talk about.. fun ???
Then the castles, as they light them on fire, they explode from every side, shooting fireworks into the sky, and, when they misfire, which is about 1 in 4 times, into the crowd. People screaming and laughing and drinking hot mate. The Latin American idea of a great night in the plaza.
The next day we were off to the overpriced tourist attraction that is Machu Picchu, now proclaimed as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Incredibly expensive, full of gringos, though a lot less because a lot of Europeans and Americans fled, scared off by the earthquake, leaving the Peruvians to live in the devastation.
It was worth it. Once. Very expensive. An incredibly expensive and not very nice train ride in a train owned by a foreign company to arrive at the bottom of the montain. The first day we climbed the whole mountain, hundreds, maybe thousands of steep stone steps, to avoid paying the expensive bus. We went up to look for an illegal way in. We searched all around, but there were guards everywhere and we didnt feel like getting caught by the police and deported. We climbed back down the mountain, exhausted, and decided to cough up the dough to enter the ruins legally.
The next morning we got up at 4 am because we wanted to be in the lucky few who get to go to Wayna Picchu. Wayna Picchu is the mountain you see in the background in photos of Machu Picchu. Well, they only let in 200 people in the morning out of the thousands who want up. We arrived at the ticket window, bought our tickets, and took the bus, so exhausted from the day before we could hardly walk to the bus, much less up the mountain again. We arrived and the line was already huge! The ruins open at 6 am, we arrived at 6 05 and the line was huge!!! We entered the ruins and didnt stop for photos, running past old bewildered gringos to the far end of the ruins where another long line was forming... but... we made it! Numbers 167 and 168 of the 200. I could barely drag myself up the towering mountain but at last we arrived and found ourselves at the top of a mountain covered in ruins with an unbelievable view of Machu Picchu spread out below us.
Later in the day we climbed down and paid a local guide a few dollars to walk us through the ruins themselves. We took the overpriced train back to the town of Ollantaytambo, too tired to continue to Cuzco. The problem with Machu Picchu is that the money does not go to the local communities. It goes to foreign companies. We talked with the women who sold us empanadas in the street. She says, fortunately, in ten years the foreign companies are supposed to turn control back over to the local people. The bad thing is, gringo tourists are not conscious of anything, they dont think to question where their money is going or how they are affecting the local population. It is kinda sad how ignorant people can be.
A few days later, we found ourselves in Puno, on the edge of Lake Titikaka, the highest lake in the world. We heard something about some floating islands in the lake and decided to make our way out to some islands. The islands are called Los Uros and they are literally handmade by Aymara indigenous people so that they can live on the lake. It was used as a defense mechanism to protect them from the old Incan Empire. The islands are made of reeds, and on them our houses made of reeds, with reed furniture. The fuel is reeds and the boats are made of reeds, and the crafts are made of reeds... and the people eat... you guessed it, the roots of the reeds. Wait til you see the pictures, or Google it! It is crazy.
Afterwards we went to the Island of Amantani, a Quechua island where we stayed with a local family who was surprised when I blurted out the little Quechua I know. We talked with the señora about tourism and indigenous communities. Good discussions. The next morning to the Island of Taquile, another Quechua island where the men supposedly dress like the men on the Spanish island of Mayorca because a Mayorcan conquistador had bought the island in colonial times.
Lake Titikaka is incredibly blue and so large it looks like the sea. It is cold but beautiful.
Yesterday, after more problems at the border where the police suspected Santiago was an Ecuadorian drug trafficker and the immigration said his passport was fake (all this as twenty gringos passed by without any hassle or problems)... we entered Bolivia, and made it to the small town of Copacobana. We were supposed to go to the Isla del Sol, or Island of the Sun, today, still on Lake Titikaka, but we woke up to a torrential downpour, snow on the hills, and Santiago with a horrible cold, so we are waiting til this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Afterwards, La Paz and the Uyuni Salt Licks!
The first activity of the evening, fireworks, set off.. from the ground.. from a barrel.. all of us running for cover in case it explodes into the crowd, killing people, as happens now and then. Next, the ÷Vaca Loca÷ or Crazy Cow. ÷Aggggh, the crazy cow, run for it, Elizabeth÷ Santiago screams, dragging me behind him as I look around, bewildered. Apparently, the Crazy Cow is a papier mache cow filled with fireworks. Some idiot puts the cow on his head and runs around making the people scatter, running for their lives as the cow explodes flaming fireworks and rockets into the crowd. Santiago tells me that children have lost fingers in fire castle fiestas before as they try to escape the Crazy Cow... Talk about.. fun ???
Then the castles, as they light them on fire, they explode from every side, shooting fireworks into the sky, and, when they misfire, which is about 1 in 4 times, into the crowd. People screaming and laughing and drinking hot mate. The Latin American idea of a great night in the plaza.
The next day we were off to the overpriced tourist attraction that is Machu Picchu, now proclaimed as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Incredibly expensive, full of gringos, though a lot less because a lot of Europeans and Americans fled, scared off by the earthquake, leaving the Peruvians to live in the devastation.
It was worth it. Once. Very expensive. An incredibly expensive and not very nice train ride in a train owned by a foreign company to arrive at the bottom of the montain. The first day we climbed the whole mountain, hundreds, maybe thousands of steep stone steps, to avoid paying the expensive bus. We went up to look for an illegal way in. We searched all around, but there were guards everywhere and we didnt feel like getting caught by the police and deported. We climbed back down the mountain, exhausted, and decided to cough up the dough to enter the ruins legally.
The next morning we got up at 4 am because we wanted to be in the lucky few who get to go to Wayna Picchu. Wayna Picchu is the mountain you see in the background in photos of Machu Picchu. Well, they only let in 200 people in the morning out of the thousands who want up. We arrived at the ticket window, bought our tickets, and took the bus, so exhausted from the day before we could hardly walk to the bus, much less up the mountain again. We arrived and the line was already huge! The ruins open at 6 am, we arrived at 6 05 and the line was huge!!! We entered the ruins and didnt stop for photos, running past old bewildered gringos to the far end of the ruins where another long line was forming... but... we made it! Numbers 167 and 168 of the 200. I could barely drag myself up the towering mountain but at last we arrived and found ourselves at the top of a mountain covered in ruins with an unbelievable view of Machu Picchu spread out below us.
Later in the day we climbed down and paid a local guide a few dollars to walk us through the ruins themselves. We took the overpriced train back to the town of Ollantaytambo, too tired to continue to Cuzco. The problem with Machu Picchu is that the money does not go to the local communities. It goes to foreign companies. We talked with the women who sold us empanadas in the street. She says, fortunately, in ten years the foreign companies are supposed to turn control back over to the local people. The bad thing is, gringo tourists are not conscious of anything, they dont think to question where their money is going or how they are affecting the local population. It is kinda sad how ignorant people can be.
A few days later, we found ourselves in Puno, on the edge of Lake Titikaka, the highest lake in the world. We heard something about some floating islands in the lake and decided to make our way out to some islands. The islands are called Los Uros and they are literally handmade by Aymara indigenous people so that they can live on the lake. It was used as a defense mechanism to protect them from the old Incan Empire. The islands are made of reeds, and on them our houses made of reeds, with reed furniture. The fuel is reeds and the boats are made of reeds, and the crafts are made of reeds... and the people eat... you guessed it, the roots of the reeds. Wait til you see the pictures, or Google it! It is crazy.
Afterwards we went to the Island of Amantani, a Quechua island where we stayed with a local family who was surprised when I blurted out the little Quechua I know. We talked with the señora about tourism and indigenous communities. Good discussions. The next morning to the Island of Taquile, another Quechua island where the men supposedly dress like the men on the Spanish island of Mayorca because a Mayorcan conquistador had bought the island in colonial times.
Lake Titikaka is incredibly blue and so large it looks like the sea. It is cold but beautiful.
Yesterday, after more problems at the border where the police suspected Santiago was an Ecuadorian drug trafficker and the immigration said his passport was fake (all this as twenty gringos passed by without any hassle or problems)... we entered Bolivia, and made it to the small town of Copacobana. We were supposed to go to the Isla del Sol, or Island of the Sun, today, still on Lake Titikaka, but we woke up to a torrential downpour, snow on the hills, and Santiago with a horrible cold, so we are waiting til this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Afterwards, La Paz and the Uyuni Salt Licks!
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